There are often situations when it is desirable to control particular electronic communication to and/or from devices used by people who are present at a discrete (small) location, such as a room or building. The discrete location is hereinafter referred to as an electronic communication room (ECR), and the people within the location who are participating in the electronic communication, are referred to as ECR visitors.
The electronic communication within the ECR may be wireless radio communication or wireline electronic communication. For mobile devices that utilize public wireless networks such as 2G, 3G or 4G, wireless reception by those devices is generally not confined to a given (small) location. Local radio communication such as WiFi is also usually not confined to the given (small) location. For example it is very common for an electronic device to be able to connect to other open local wireless networks in the neighborhood.
One approach used to control electronic communication by a device is to use short-range radio communication such as Near Field Communication (NFC), Bluetooth, or WiFi. These are all radio protocols with protocol-dependent range, and the corresponding geographic area is just defined by the given range. These protocols do not address a situation where the geographic area in which particular electronic communication is to be allowed, is defined by a spatial structure, such as, for example, a room in a building. For example, although access to a local WiFi may be controlled by security mechanisms and explicit registration of authorized users, once registered, the users are able to connect as long as the device is capable of receiving the transmitted radio signals. The range of such reception often transcends the boundaries of a room or other designated space.
One way to control communication of an electronic device while within an ECR is to give the ECR visitors instructions to manually control the electronic device to have certain communication capabilities. For example, ECR visitors may be asked to manually re-configure their electronic communication devices to prevent particular communication of the electronic devices (e.g. manually silencing their phones so that no calls are attended to). ECR visitors may also be provided with a password or URL, and asked to manually type in the password or URL in order to access confidential data. This control mechanism, however, does not control electronic communication once the ECR visitor leaves the ECR location. That is, electronic communication may remain enabled even after leaving the ECR location.
Another option may be to disable radio communication outside of a given location using technologies such as, for example, a Faraday cage/shield. This solution, however, is expensive and has many barriers towards implementation.
Accordingly, what is desired is a system and method for controlling particular communication capabilities of electronic devices within an ECR location, where the ECR may be set up as a permanent or temporary ECR, and may be defined by any spatial boundaries such as a room or building.